01. Annual Reports & Independent Evaluations

1,120 items available

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/1

Sub-collections of this Collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 14

World Bank Group Engagement in Resource-Rich Developing Countries: The Cases of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Zambia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015) Independent Evaluation Group
This report by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) summarizes the experiences of and draws lessons from the country program evaluations of four natural resource-rich countries: the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Zambia. It concludes that although the challenges identified in these countries are not unique, they manifest themselves with particular intensity in three closely interrelated areas that need to be defined and structured as a coherent strategy: (i) management of revenues from an exhaustible resource; (ii) growth and employment in the non-extractive sectors, and (iii) inclusive growth and reduction of poverty. Overall, looking at the four resource-rich countries in this evaluation, one does not see the World Bank Group as having a consistent framework for engagement, driven by the defining characteristics of these countries—their rich endowment with non-renewable natural resources and dependence on revenues from their exploitation. Each of the four stories evolved in a unique way that depended on how the country teams decided to react to differing country circumstances. The main challenge for the Bank Group in these countries today is how to stay relevant and competitive, as its value proposition is no longer its financial resources, but its knowledge and global experience, which may call for a more modest scope of interventions while keeping the focus on key challenges.
Myanmar: The World Bank Group Country Opinion Survey FY 2014
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-11) World Bank Group
The Country Opinion Survey in Myanmar assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Myanmar perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Myanmar on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Myanmar; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Myanmar; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Myanmar; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Myanmar.
Timor-Leste: The World Bank Group Country Opinion Survey FY 2014
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-10) World Bank Group
The Country Opinion Survey in Timor-Leste assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Timor-Leste perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Timor-Leste on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Timor-Leste; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Timor-Leste; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Timor-Leste; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Timor-Leste.
Mongolia: The World Bank Group Country Opinion Survey FY 2014
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-09) World Bank Group
The Country Opinion Survey in Mongolia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mongolia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mongolia on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mongolia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mongolia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mongolia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Mongolia.
Vietnam: The World Bank Group Country Opinion Survey FY 2014
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05) World Bank Group
The Country Opinion Survey in Vietnam assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Vietnam perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Vietnam on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Vietnam; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Vietnam; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Vietnam; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Vietnam.
Philippines Country Opinion Survey Report (July 2013 - June 2014)
(Washington, DC, 2014-03-14) World Bank Group
The Country Opinion Survey for FY2013 in the Philippines assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in the Philippines perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in the Philippines on 1) their views regarding the general environment in the Philippines; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in the Philippines; 3) overall impressions of the WBG s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in the Philippines; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG s future role in the Philippines.
Cambodia: World Bank Country-Level Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12) Girishankar, Navin; DeGroot, David; Desai, Raj; Stout, Susan; Wescott, Clay
Cambodia is one of the world's most open economies, sustaining high levels of growth in an environment of relatively weak governance. Emerging from a legacy of genocide and civil conflict, the country has sought to address human and social capital deficits across sectors, weaknesses in public finance, and corruption. Despite improvements in access to basic services, governance constraints persist and may threaten gains from economic integration. Over the 2004-10 period, the Bank's engagement on Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) issues in Cambodia was not defined by a single, overarching priority or entry point (such as core public sector management, natural resource management, or service delivery). Rather, the Bank was opportunistic, opting to support the government's GAC efforts across multiple sectors and institutions. The relevance of this opportunistic approach is judged to be moderately relevant. The Bank's objectives on public financial management (PFM) were highly relevant given Cambodia's nontransparent and weak public expenditure management and limited capacity. The Bank's response to sectoral governance weaknesses such as red tape, inefficiencies, and other forms of rent-seeking in customs is rated modest given the need for the government to implement its World Trade Organization commitments. The Bank's project level engagement is rated as moderately relevant. As a basis for reinstating suspended projects, portfolio-wide measures included the use of an Independent Procurement Agency (IPA) for the International Development Association (IDA) procurements, and the implementation of Good Governance Frameworks (GGF) for all IDA projects.
Cambodia: An IEG Country Assistance Evaluation, 1999-2006
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010) Independent Evaluation Group
Cambodia emerged in the early 1990s from 30 years of conflict, the brutal Khmer Rouge era, and a decade of Vietnamese occupation, with one of the world’s lowest per-capita incomes, and with social indicators far behind those of neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Physical infrastructure had been largely destroyed. United Nations intervention led to a peace agreement in 1991, a new constitution, elections, and formation of a coalition government, although a reduced level of conflict and political instability continued until the late 1990s. The government began a process of economic liberalization in the late 1980s which has been sustained. The donor world responded rapidly to Cambodia’s huge resource need with a high level of concessional aid which has been sustained. Since the mid-1990s the economy has been growing steadily; by 2006, per-capita incomes were double the 1998 level and the incidence of poverty had been significantly reduced. Social indicators have improved, generally to above the average for low-income countries, but are still well below those for most Southeast Asian countries. The Bank has focused on governance issues with increasing intensity in each succeeding country assistance strategy, and has worked with other donors in a number of areas. Progress has been made on certain governance-related issues such as public financial management, including expenditure reorientation, the poverty focus in health and education services, and support for decentralized, community-based development programs.
The Bank's Assistance to China's Energy Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27) Churchill, Anthony; Thum, Cordula
China is the second largest energy consumer in the world and the largest producer and consumer of coal. Owing to its large coal resources, it is and will remain in the foreseeable future largely energy self-sufficient, although crude oil imports have steadily increased since 1993. In just 17 years, China has become the Bank's largest borrower in the energy sector having received about 7 billion dollars in loans to date. The Bank has also carried out a substantial amount of analytical and advisory services. Despite the amount of lending to the energy sector, the sheer size of the sector in China has made the World Bank, at least in financial terms, a relatively marginal player. The Bank s assistance aimed at helping China's integration into the global economy. It focused on removing bottlenecks to the country's accelerating economic growth and on institutional development (emphasizing technology transfer and capacity building). After the major policy breakthroughs of the mid-1990s in the power sector, progress on sector reform has slowed and major policy issues in such critical subsectors as coal, oil, and gas have largely gone unattended. To address this, the Bank can choose to focus increasingly on peripheral subsectors such as renewables and energy efficiency where policy issues are less sensitive and government buy-in more likely. A more difficult path will be for the Bank to continue its sizeable financial support to the energy sector but frame it within a truly comprehensive dialogue on national energy policy issues.
Evaluation of the World Bank's Contribution to Chinese Enterprise Reform
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27) Nolan, Peter
It is widely recognized in Chinese policy-making circles that the World Bank made a significant contribution to the country s enterprise reform in the 1980s. A major contribution consisted of bringing eminent international scholars and policy-makers to China, and in sending leading Chinese scholars and policy-makers abroad. The World Bank's financial support for these activities had a significant impact on the development of ideas on enterprise reform, especially at the highly influential Chinese Economic System Reform Research Institute (CESRRI), under the state council. The contribution of the World Bank was given more concrete form in the shape of joint research (from 1983 to 1985) on state enterprise reform, between the World Bank and leading Chinese institutions, under the umbrella of the Economics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The World Bank has been involved in several industrial projects through its loan program. The main point of focus has been the fertilizer sector, but it has also been involved in projects in the machine tool, pharmaceuticals, and cement sectors. The World Bank has devoted increasing amounts of research resources in the China field to analyzing the role of private enterprise in the economy.